St. Catharines, Ontario: St. Catharines Museum

St. Catharines is famous for a few different things. They are covered nicely in the city's official museum, located within a complex located by the Welland Canal.

The first, naturally, is shipping. St. Catharines became a port once the Welland Canal was first built in the 1800s. As the canal was enlarged over the years, the ships became bigger and the port became busier. The museum has some nice displays about that relationship.

The second concerns the famous Underground Railroad, which helped move African Americans to freedom in Canada before the Civil War in America in 1861. About 10,000 people made the trip north, and some of them - almost 1,000 ended up in St. Catharines. The Museum has an area dedicated to that part of the city's history, including a section on the problems the new residents encountered. A nice video is available as well.

Third, there's hockey. Well, this is Canada, so hockey has to come up. Among the players with connections to St. Catharines are Bobby Hull, Marcel Dionne, Stan Mikita and Mike Gartner. However, Gerry Cheevers gets extra credit since he was born in St. Catharines. And Cheevers became famous for his goalie mask.

The netminder once took a shot to the face in practice with the Boston Bruins. It was a weak shot, but Cheever thought it would be a good way to miss the rest of the workout, so he skated off the ice. Coach Harry Sinden ordered him to return. However, Cheevers decided to have a little fun with the idea. He had trainer "Frosty" Forristal l paint fake stitches on to the mask. It started a tradition of adding more stitchmarks when he took a shot to the face. The mask became famous in hockey circles, and Cheevers donated it to the St. Catharines Museum.